Serenade for Strings, Op. 1 Samuel Barber

Titel / Title: Serenade Op.1 - Score and Parts
Herausgeber / Publisher: G. Schirmer
Produkttyp / Product: Partitur + Stimmen
Format: 305 X 229
UPC: 73999876314

For String Quartet or String Orchestra (1-1-1-1-1).

Written at the tender age of eighteen, Samuel Barber's Serenade for String Quartet (or String Orchestra) is the work of a talented student on the brink of individual mastery. I say "brink" deliberately, since in some ways the work is extremely conservative, not least in its well-worn title (at the urging of his uncle Sidney Homer, Barber would sharpen and modernize his titles very soon), its firm roots in late-Romantic European composition, and its strict classical forms. And yet there is something mysterious, even tragic in this little work, a unique expressive seed out of which Barber's later, more developed music would come: perhaps that is what caused Uncle Sidney to question the use of the blithe moniker "Serenade." (The orchestral works Music for a Scene from Shelley and the first Essay for Orchestra are the earliest examples.) G. Schirmer, Barber's sole publisher, originally published it in 1942; they brought the work out again in 1944, at which time the composer included some minimal notations that would permit a string orchestra performance with double bass. The Serenade has never been one of Barber's most popular pieces, but this arrangement has proved far more popular than the original quartet version, performances of which are exceedingly rare. Pure chamber music was never Barber's strong point.